Reality and Dreams – Muriel Spark

I’m away with my family for a few days, out of range of internet – the vicar escaping, post-Christmas Day!  I’ve scheduled some posts to appear, but I shan’t be able to reply for a bit – and hopefully I’ll be back with internet in time to write a post about the only one of my Century of Books that I’ve not yet finished!

If you were thinking that I’d had enough of Muriel Spark during Muriel Spark Reading Week, then think again!  One of the final books I’ve read in 2012 is her last of the 20th century, and third last overall – Reality and Dreams (1996).


Tom Richards – presumably a deliberately bland name – is a famous film director.  The first line of the novel, and thus the line which kicks off our impression of him, is archetypical Spark: ‘He often wondered if we were all characters in one of God’s dreams.’  And, with Spark’s panache for combining surreality with restraint, she goes no further with that paragraph.  It hangs, so strangely, and we are shepherded straight to the second paragraph – where we learn that Tom Richards is recovering in hospital, having fallen out of a crane whilst directing a scene.  He broke nearly all his bones, but is lucky to be alive.

For the first few pages, reality and dreams swirl, as Tom fades in and out of lucidity.  I often have problems with the ways in which authors try to convey any mental distortion – whether disorientation or illness – as it usually seems clumsy and heavy-handed, or simply unreadable.  Spark, reliably, does it brilliantly.  Even something as simple as this conveys the disjointedness of time:

She poured out some milky tea.  He opened his eyes.  The tray had disappeared.
And then the complicated family arrive.  His wife Claire is patient and unshockable – and has affairs as often as he does, quite casually.  There is his angelically beautiful, but unvivid, daughter from his first marriage (Cora), and stolid, moaning, unattractive daughter from his current marriage (Marigold).  And there is the squabbling, self-absorbed cast of his film, originally called The Hamburger Girl – inspired by a brief sighting of a young woman at a campsite, who captivated Tom.

The various marriages in the family (some disintegrating), the cancelled and re-commissioned film production, the disappearance of one of his daughters and ensuing police search – all come together and interweave, creating a curiously mixed structure.  I think one of the most distinctive qualities in Muriel Spark’s writing is that everything is always on the same level.  She refuses to get overly-dramatic about anything – possible kidnap and murder is treated in the same matter-of-fact way as Tom’s physiotherapy, or the workings of the film shoot.  For it is, of course, the sphere of cinema which influences Spark’s title:

that world of dreams and reality which he was at home in, the world of filming scenes, casting people in parts, piecing together types and shadows, facts and illusions
Apart from the mental disorientation at the beginning of the novel, there is never any wider suggestion that reality and dream might have been exchanged – but there is the possibility that fictitious events are starting, in a distorted way, to become true.  It’s never overdone, but is a clever thread through a clever novel.  It’s all quintessential Spark, and a perfect reminder of why she’s one of my favourite authors.

7 thoughts on “Reality and Dreams – Muriel Spark

  • December 27, 2012 at 12:42 am
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    Sounds like fun. I hope to get to it someday. I try to read a Spark or two each year.

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    • December 31, 2012 at 4:06 pm
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      I think I'll keep it that way from now on – about halfway through her books now, I think, and 2 a year will spread them out a bit!

      Reply
  • December 27, 2012 at 3:39 am
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    I think Simon I shall never hear the words 'Muriel Spark' without thinking of you. I sure have learned a lot about this author the past year. Hope 2013 continues to be happy for you. Pam

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    • December 31, 2012 at 4:06 pm
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      A very lovely association to have! But I do have a couple of other bloggers to thank for bringing me back to Spark, after not much liking the first two – so hurrah for Simon of Savidge Reads and Claire of the erstwhile Paperback Reader.

      Reply
  • December 27, 2012 at 3:56 pm
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    This is one of the Spark books that I read, really liked at the time but now thinking back on it I don't really remember the ins and outs of it at all. Which worries me. Your review has reminded me I liked it, and nudged my memory of it though so thank you. It might be one of the first I have to re-read when I have read all her books and start again.

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    • December 31, 2012 at 4:07 pm
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      (see above for my praise of you!)
      Some of hers have blurred in my mind – The Takeover, for instance – but at least they're nice and short for a re-read!

      Reply
  • November 25, 2022 at 10:30 am
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    Interesting to note that the readers who dislike the book concentrate on the horridness of the characters. I think they may be missing the point. Spark’s point seems to be life is horrid and to get through it you need to be thoroughly cynical and have an eye for the main chance. The book seems to me to be a satire on modern life where nothing is certain and change inevitable, though not to be
    welcomed. It’s more like a game or puzzle to be ‘enjoyed’ than a realistic portrayal of 3-d Characters.

    Reply

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